JERUSALEM—The Palestinian Authority has authorized payments of $355 million to convicted terrorists and the families of terrorists as part of their 2018, according to a report by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).
The P.A. budget for the Commission of Prisoner Affairs, which pays the salaries of terrorist prisoners and released prisoners, is set at $166 million, of which $158 million will go to terrorists.
Additionally, the budget for the Families of the Martyrs and Wounded Institution is set at $200 million, of which $197 million will go to the families of terrorists.
As such, the total payment by the P.A. for 2018 is set at $355 million, which is 7.47 percent of its operation budget of $4.76 billion in 2018 and some 44 percent of the funding the P.A. hopes to receive in foreign aid this year.
“It is very significant that for the first time since 2014, the P.A. has stopped attempting to hide that it is the P.A. that pays salaries to all the terrorist prisoners. This year, the P.A. openly lists the budget for these salaries to the Commission of Prisoners as a direct P.A. budget expense [listed as “transfer payments”],” the PMW report said.
The release of these budget figures comes as the United States passed the Taylor Force Act last week, which cuts off nearly all U.S. aid to the P.A. if it continues to pay the salaries of terrorist prisoners and families.
Palestinian Media Watch also said that former P.A. Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Ashraf al-Ajrami confirmed the numbers to PMW legal counsel Maurice Hirsch, as well as PLO machinations to avoid implications of the Taylor Force Act. Hirsch said that al-Ajrami admitted that PA had closed the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs and the creation of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs was done to deceive the international community, which did not want the PA to use their money to pay salaries to terrorists and families of “Martyrs”:
Hirsch quoted al-Ajrami as saying “Because there were complaints from bodies, in fact from funders of the Palestinian Authority who did not want their money to go to the families of prisoners and the fallen. Therefore, the Palestinian Authority said that we will not pay money from the government’s budget, we will pay from the PLO, and then they brought the PA Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs to the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs under the control of the PLO, and then the money moved from the Palestinian Authority to the PLO – the PLO pays, not the Palestinian Authority.”
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the findings prove that Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen supports terrorism. “The mask has come down and the gloves have come off. We will act quickly to take a decision to withhold tax monies (from the PA) against the payments that Abu Mazen hands out to terrorists and put an end to this absurd situation.”
MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beteinu), the head of the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus (KIVC) Chair added that payments were a slap in the face to the United States and said he would with with Congressional allies to draft a coordinated response.
“This can not go unanswered and amply demonstrates the necessity of the Taylor Force Act and a similar law we will pass in the Knesset. The outrageous and shameless commitment to murder and the funding apparatus surrounding it are signs that the Palestinian Authority leadership feels immune from international reproach for its bloody policies, and this must stop immediately,” Forer said.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Dannon said: “Mahmoud Abbas has once again revealed his true intentions as he directly funds hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists with blood on their hands.’’
“Once again, the Palestinians have responded to American initiatives aimed at reconciliation with support for terror and violence. We call on the international community, and the United Nations, to join the U.S. in their pledge to put an end to the funding of Palestinian terror.”
TPS contributed to this report.